slingin lingo in staten island

Okay, not technically 'in' but more like 'on the ferry to/from'.

Oh, my poor dogs. My blistering blisty under my second big toe (the one that looks like ET) is causing me nothing but anguish, as I walk with a gangster limp down NYC streets in an attempt to quell the pain that shoots up my leg every time my left foot comes down on pavement.

Took the ferry to the final burough I'd yet to visit so far on the trip: Staten Island aka birth place of the Wu Tang Clan.

Now like I mentioned earlier, I didn't get off and spend any time on Staten Island, because again, my foot was giving me grief. But I made sure to take advantage of the free ride on the Hudson to scope out the Manhattan shoreline and the Maid of the Mist herself, the Statue of Liberty.

I've seen quite a few of these types of landmarks in my days and most of the time, once they come into sight, I kind of stand there for a few seconds, think about the type of work that went into designing and then constructing the structure and then shrug my shoulders, snap a shot and take off to a pub.

However, with the green lady, it was different. I don't know if it was all the 9/11 tributes or visiting Ground Zero earlier that day and the fact that the Statue has been such a powerful and prevelant symbol of liberty and freedom, hammered into my cranium for the entire duration of my life or if looking at it from the middle of the Hudson River, away from the towering buildings that act like horse-blinders for consumers, finally allowed myself to place where I was -- in New York City. But I definitely felt moved by the statue -- moved how? I'm not sure -- and its glowing torch, as we slowly approached and it grew larger out of the mist, and then as we passed and it faded into the rain until it was just a silhouette, slightly darker than the Newark and Manhattan skylines, with white-capped waves whipped up by the gusting winds thrashing the sides of the ferry.

---

Waiting to get off the ferry and back to Manhattan, I stood behind this man in his forties who was waxing poetic about old school hip-hop, with no one around him.

"See back then we didn't have no 50 Cent, no Jay-Z, none of that shit," he says. "We had Bizzy B and Kool Mo Dee."

And then he starts to just start singing hooks.

"Youuuuu... got what I nee-eeeeeeed..."

"I know y'all know the words." No one acknowledges the man with the Everlast chinstrap.

"I got sunshi-i-ine... on a cloudy day."

Again no one even looks. I walk about 200 metres before heading down to the subway where I bump into him again, still singing. Still no one cares.

Come to think of it, travelling without the iPod, I've had a hankering more than once to hear an old song, especially as an avenue name or street sign conjures up a lyric from the countless New York records I've listened to and the song just floats around in my head and I'm humming like mad for the rest of the day.

And since I'm not crazy enough yet to start singing them, I'll list the top five I've had pestering me here in New York.

1. Any song off the last two Deerhunter albums. Particularly 'Little Kids' and 'Rainwater Cassette Exchange.'
2. What they may Seem - Talib Kweli and Tony Touch
3. Nutmeg - Ghostface Killah
4. #9 Dream - John Lennon
5. Definition - Black Star